While food is definitely a factor, we have lived mostly off of game meat at our house for more than 10 years now, it is only a portion of the reason and reward of hunting. Perhaps Fred Bear best described it as "Soul Cleansing".

I feel a "peace" when I'm at field. I sit alone in my blind or stand and think and ponder a multitude of things in complete relaxation. Yet at the same time I feel relaxed my instincts and senses are at a heightened awareness noticing the most minute movements, noises or changes in my surroundings. I feel as I become at one with the world. Not man's world, but God's.

Wiping the sweat from my brow while planting trees or clearing lanes, twitching my nose at the cold tingle of a winter day while sitting in stand, listening to the patter of raindrops on the timber floor under the canopy of pines, listening to the water of the creek as it flows over the near by creek, smelling the musk of a rutting buck, and a seemingly endless list of sensual triggers is something that I crave and can't imagine my life without.

And while I so enjoy the solitude of a hunt, it is also the camaraderie of hunts/hunting that often brings me together with friends and family in scouting and preparation sessions, deer camps, pheasant hunts, butchering days, and of course sharing and enjoying the fruits of our hunts. The amazement of watching my dogs work a scent, and the excitement of a point and the anticipation of what they've located is different than most any other activity I do, as is the rush of an approaching deer, or the adrenaline dump after releasing an arrow.

I feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment not only in my kills, but in what I do for mother earth in my efforts as a conservationist, and possibly most rewardingly as a father who has passed down not just an activity, but a skill, a discipline, a way of life, to my children that I hope will benefit them no matter what avenues they choose in adulthood.

I'm not that altruistic. I work the food plots, so I can attract and hold the deer in order to kill 'em. The same with trimming shooting lanes, cutting fire lines, etc. I do enjoy the comraderie when running deer with dogs, and I also enjoy the times I've spent with my boy teaching him to hunt.

I've never bought into the claims of people who hunt and never kill anything, when they say that they received just as much enjoyment from simply being in the woods. I've always thought they were trying to justify their lack of luck and trying to save face. If I spent all of the time, money and effort that I spend, without ever killing deer, then I'd probably go back to playing golf and shooting pool instead of hunting......that is if I didn't starve to death first!!!!!!!!!!

"I've never bought into the claims of people who hunt and never kill anything, when they say that they received just as much enjoyment from simply being in the woods."

Then you obviously don't understand it, because it's not a claim, it's truth. Not everyone get to this point, and not everyone has to. And you don't have to be absolute with it either. Many of the people I know who do this are not by any means in the "never kill anything" description. Most of them have killed A LOT of deer. Maybe that's what it takes. What they are there for is the hunt. A kill is a bonus that they may or may not choose to make. They've reached the point where they don't feel as though they have to kill a deer for a hunt to be successful, and they darn sure don't have to prove anything to anyone.

I've probably killed more deer than any two other people most of us can name, but for me, it's still about putting food on the table. I don't trophy hunt, and have never paid a taxidermist for a deer mount, and when people claim they get just as much enjoyment out of just being in the woods, they obviously don't depend on killing deer for food.....so, they must be in it for the trophy is the way I look at it. Travis and I actually do eat venison an average of at least three to four times per week, each and every week of the year. Without killing deer, squirrels, and rabbits, we'd have many meals without meat.

People who don't kill anything certainly don't have to prove anything to me, as I really could care less about what other people get out of hunting. My point is and was that deer hunting in particular is my primary source for providing food and that killing a deer is of the utmost importance to me, simply because of that aspect.

You still don't get it. Their "trophy", as you put it, is the HUNT, and specifically the WAY they hunted. Yes, they are there to kill a deer. But they DON'T have to kill one to make a hunt a success.. It's that simple.

Right on WW. Fully agree that some need meat on the table and I have not bought much beef in the last few years. I used to chase the snowshoe hare with dogs. Take sandwiches or hot dogs and put them on the fire for lunch. To bring home a rabbit at the end of the day was like you said,,,,,,frosting on the cake!!!!!

I wouldn't consider myself a trophy hunter either. Antlers, if I should get them are simply bonus, not at all what drives me. My family has been living primarily on wild game for over 10 years now. Deer, squirrel, rabbit, dove, pheasant, goose, ducks, fish, turtle, I'm probably forgetting something, but you get the idea. I certainly spend more time a field than most people I know, and yes, ultimately the reason is providing sustenance.

But hunting is so much more. Providing for my family in such a manner is a choice I've made. I could just as easily go to the store and buy meat. It's certainly not inexpensive to provide meat for a family by hunting and it dominates a large portion of my time as well, but it is all the other things I get out of hunting, besides slabbage on a plate, that have led me to the choice I have made.

I've gone through several stages as a hunter. I've been solely a gun hunter. I've been a shoot anything in range hunter.I grew up small game and upland bird hunting, started shotgun hunting deer when I was about 14, started bow hunting in college, as an archer I've gone through different stages starting with a compound, at one time exclusively shooting recurve, and with new laws in Illinois this will be my first time ever as a crossbow hunter. I've adapted and changed what I will or won't kill and still adapt as need demands through out a season. I understand some never experience the emotional connection I have obtained with hunting. It's unfortunate that most people in their lives will never experience the fulfillment that hunting provides me. When I say I'm a hunter, it means so much more than just killing animals.